Activist detained, interrogated, and threatened by state agents

In the afternoon of November 18, 2010, Ruben Arias Flores, an activist from the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), was detained by captain and sector chief Gianny Clape Rodríguez, because he allegedly posted anti-government signs on the walls of some public places in the city. After being detained, the activist was taken to the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) unit where he was interrogated by Lieutenant Colonel Lesnier Leiva, who told the activist that he would not allow any kind of public disorder in the municipality, and much less to those who want to destabilize the country as the counter-revolutionary movement of Santiago de Cuba has been doing, which is how this official referred to the leader of the UNPACU, José Daniel Ferrer. The aforementioned official threatened the activist with prosecution for wanting to create disturbances in the municipality and for instigating the population to join UNPACU. According to this official, this was a serious crime and they were not willing to allow him to locate any type of rebellion in Baracoa, much less one provoked by agitators like him. The activist, after spending more than 48 hours in detention in subhuman conditions, was released with the threat that his case would be sent to the prosecutor's office, which should not abandon the municipality because if it did, he would be detained and imprisoned until he was tried by the courts. Additionally, the activist had $100 CUC (85.7 euros) confiscated from him, which have not yet been returned to him, even though he has claimed his money on several occasions.